[Tatersalad]

Originally Posted by shiv@vishnu

Ahh.. that makes more sense. And yep, those e90 m3s are really amazing on the roadcourse. I drove one at WAJ (western automotive journalist) event last year. With two journalists in the car, I was running in the 44-45sec range, lap after lap, with traffic. Such a fun and easy car to drive right out of the box. It was unreal driving a mid-sized sedan that has the body control, brakes and balance of a tiny sports car. It was especially fun for me because that is the only fast car I've ever run at LS that didn't go over the sound limit. Usually i'm putting past the sound meter which is no fun

Shiv

Yep, I have heard that the e90 M3's are very good in their stock configuration. 44-45's with a stock (e90) config is pretty cool! Did you have any brake fade during the session? Also, is it possible to fully disable DSC on those cars?

One of my major issues with the E46 is that the stock pads and rotors (even on the M3's) are not that great. Friday at Laguna, brakes degraded pretty quickly after the first session - albeit with old brake fluid. I figure that I can probably get into the 47's with my M3 without thrashing it too much and using race pads - maybe the 46's, but that may be a little optimistic. 43's to 44's would be possible with brakes and suspension changes - Front BBK + AST 4100's or similar. 42's (or less) would require all the above plus ECU changes. All of this assuming R-comps only.

Sounds like it would be possible to get in the low 40's and maybe the high 30's with a little hardware/software work to the E90 M3's. Crazy, considering we used to run 30's in some (lower powered) open wheel cars. :-)

[Mr. 5]

Here's another video guys.
This one has different camera angles.

I'll update the initial post as well.

[OpenFlash]

Originally Posted by Tatersalad

Yep, I have heard that the e90 M3's are very good in their stock configuration. 44-45's with a stock (e90) config is pretty cool! Did you have any brake fade during the session? Also, is it possible to fully disable DSC on those cars?

One of my major issues with the E46 is that the stock pads and rotors (even on the M3's) are not that great. Friday at Laguna, brakes degraded pretty quickly after the first session - albeit with old brake fluid. I figure that I can probably get into the 47's with my M3 without thrashing it too much and using race pads - maybe the 46's, but that may be a little optimistic. 43's to 44's would be possible with brakes and suspension changes - Front BBK + AST 4100's or similar. 42's (or less) would require all the above plus ECU changes. All of this assuming R-comps only.

Sounds like it would be possible to get in the low 40's and maybe the high 30's with a little hardware/software work to the E90 M3's. Crazy, considering we used to run 30's in some (lower powered) open wheel cars. :-)

There was some brake fade with the m3 I drove. Probably because it was abused by so many other drivers that day. Low 40s are definitely possible with the car on a clear track with fresh or upgraded pads. I didn't notice any traction control intervening. In fact, the only time I even felt ABS pulsating was coming into turn 2 in the first lap or two. A great drivers car. Just wish it had turbos

[Mr. 5]

Originally Posted by shiv@vishnu

A great drivers car. Just wish it had turbos

I would rather have the NA M3 over the way my 335i is during the current configuration. There's just something about that NA motor.

[tom @ eas]

Glad you were able to make it. Looks like you had a blast.

[OpenFlash]

Originally Posted by Mr. 5

I would rather have the NA M3 over the way my 335i is during the current configuration. There's just something about that NA motor.

Yeah.. high revving NA motors are great when you can keep them in their sweet spot all the time (ie, racing). Being NA, they also don't suffer from heatsoak or (usually) oil temp issues. It's just on the street where they don't feel all that inspiring.

Shiv

[Mr. 5]

Just thought I would share some pics that the GoPro video camera took.